The crowds of shoppers cramming into US retailer Costco’s first store in China this week, forcing it to close early on its opening day, were in stark contrast to a stampede of foreign supermarket owners out of the country. In June, French chain Carrefour agreed to sell a majority stake in its China stores to local company Suning for $700m, following in the footsteps of Britain’s Tesco and Spain’s Dia. German wholesaler Metro is selling its China business. The largest remaining wholly foreign supermarket chain in China is US-owned Walmart, which after more than two decades has more than 430 stores in the country, but just a 1.7 per cent share of the $692bn Chinese grocery market, according to data provider Euromonitor.
The crowds of shoppers cramming into US retailer Costco’s first store in China this week, forcing it to close early on its opening day, were in stark contrast to a stampede of foreign supermarket owners out of the country. In June, French chain Carrefour agreed to sell a majority stake in its China stores to local company Suning for $700m, following in the footsteps of Britain’s Tesco and Spain’s Dia. German wholesaler Metro is selling its China business. The largest remaining wholly foreign supermarket chain in China is US-owned Walmart, which after more than two decades has more than 430 stores in the country, but just a 1.7 per cent share of the $692bn Chinese grocery market, according to data provider Euromonitor.
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